England's game against the South American underdogs, Ecuador, was played in Stuttgart under the sweltering heat of 34 °C. at 4 pm our time and 5 pm Germany's time and in front of a crowd of 52,000, the majority of whom were sporting the flag of St George. Sven Goran Eriksson announced that England will play with a diamond 4-1-4-1 formation with Wayne Rooney up front on his own and the youthful number 18 Michael Carrick who was playing in a sweeper position (in-between the midfield and defence). The versatile Owen Hargreaves would once again be playing at Right Back to replace the injured Gary Neville, whom will hopefully be able to play in the next round against Portugal if he can recover from his calf injury.

As the game got under way in Stuttgart, the English players and their fans were expecting to beat Ecuador to progress to the Quarter Final stages of the competition with confidence but as soon as England started the game they began to realise that it wasn't going to be as easy as they thought. England had a few shots and once again Frank Lampard had a few attempts and has had the most shots in the tournament and was unable to get it passed the passionate Ecuadorian goalkeeper C Mora and unable to score so far in the competition. The English defence were looking confident until John Terry jumped up for a header and missed the ball and the Ecuador striker Carlos Tenorio was one on one with Paul Robinson then all of a sudden a desperate Ashley Cole was able to pull an amazing slide in front of the striker to block the shot which deflected and hit the cross-bar which then went out for a corner.

After that scare England were creating chances but unable to finish. England then went in for half time and when they came out they looked refreshed and then on the hour mark England won a free kick 30 yards out and were relying on a trade mark free kick from David Beckham which he produced and the ball hit the bottom left corner and beat the keeper who was at full stretch but unable to deflect the magnificent free-kick. It was as though a huge weight had been lifted from the England team even though later on in the game Beckham was physically sick from suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion.

After Beckham's wonder goal the team were looking more positive than at any time in the competition so far and looked like they would score again with Gerrard bursting down the left and putting the ball into the six yard box but there was not an England player in sight and Wayne Rooney making runs which looked promising and he was strong and quick and looked like he was at his best even though he has just returned from injury. Rooney was on a run coming in from the left and pulled it back to Lampard who once again failed to take the chance provided and sailed the ball over the bar in the last 17 minutes.

England's win over Ecuador has put them into the last 8 of the tournament, which is the second time under the leadership of Sven Goran Eriksson. England will face Portugal in the Quarter finals in Glensenrchen on Saturday the 1st July at 4pm.

David Beckham's goal was his second from a free kick at the World cup where only 4 other players has achieved this which are Pele and Roberto Rivelino both Brazil, Teofilo of Peru and Bernard Genghini of France.

In a surprising move, FIFA named John Terry as Man of the Match, which was unusual especially as he very nearly let Ecuador score in the first half due to a missed header.

Once again England did not achieve the quality of play that they are capable of producing and something special will need to be produced if England are to have any chance of beating the high quality skills of Portugal and progressing further in this Competition.

Sam's next comment - Portugal 1st July 06

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